Hu's on top

The Lao restaurant empire is expanding beyond Chinatown

Lao 18 is Tony Hu's 11th restaurant; a 12th is set to open in Evanston this summer.

Can Tony Hu, who built his brand and reputation in Chinatown, conquer downtown Chicago?

“I'm very confident,” says Mr. Hu, owner of Tony Gourmet Group, showing a reporter around Lao 18, his River North bistro set to open this month. “Everything I do, I'm very confident. If I'm not, I won't do it. I don't want to make my life hard.”

Just a few blocks away is the second component of Mr. Hu's effort, a higher-end version of his Chinatown mainstay, Lao Sze Chuan; this one will place particular emphasis on Peking duck. It is slated to open in late fall at the Shops at North Bridge, becoming the first strictly Chinese restaurant to inhabit Boul Mich since the long-running Szechwan closed its doors six years ago.

Mr. Hu—the unofficial mayor of Chinatown who sports Lacoste and Ferragamo, tools around in a black Mercedes and lives in a condominium that overlooks Grant Park—is convinced that he can not just appeal to the tourists and residents of River North and Michigan Avenue, but do so serving unapologetically authentic Chinese food.

HIGHER-END DINING

Lao 18 will occupy 4,500 square feet of a former print shop, while the new Lao Sze Chuan will spread over 6,700 square feet. Ruben Ruban, Mr. Hu's real estate broker, says the latter is reminiscent of higher-end restaurants in Shanghai or Beijing, which are often located on the lower floors of shopping malls. He thinks this will be appreciated by the growing crowd of foreigners who visit Chicago.

Tony Hu at Lao 18 restaurant in River North, which opens this month. Photo: Kendall Karmanian

Mr. Hu, 46, came to Chicago from China in 1993 at age 26, intent on creating a business empire. He opened Lao Sze Chuan five years later, after working as a chef at Szechwan. He followed up with a procession of seven other Lao restaurants in Chinatown, each specializing in a different regional Chinese cuisine. Lao 18 will be his 11th restaurant, with another Lao Sze Chuan opening in Evanston this summer. He has restaurants in Downers Grove and Milford, Conn., as well.

Though he declines to disclose overall revenue, he says the Chinatown Lao Sze Chuan, his anchor restaurant, brought in $2.7 million in revenue last year. (A typical McDonald's generates nearly $2 million annually.) His new River North restaurants will feature food at slightly higher prices than his Chinatown fixtures, but the effort is to keep it in the same ballpark.

Future ambitions include a prix-fixe restaurant and a noodle house in Chicago, then restaurants in New York, San Francisco and Washington. He says he's also been approached about taking his act to Las Vegas.

It's not entirely clear how Mr. Hu is financing his fast-growing empire. Though he has two investor-partners for Lao 18—Bing Zhou, who owns Chen's restaurant in Wrigleyville and Koi in Evanston, and Marc Bortz, formerly the owner of three northwest suburban nightclubs—he says he is going it alone with his restaurant outside Nordstrom's top floor in Shops at North Bridge.

Can he succeed outside of Chinatown? Mr. Ruban says he scored a “very favorable deal” for the Michigan Avenue space, which previously housed an art gallery. But the mall's fourth-floor food court has been difficult terrain for restaurants. Phil Stefani gave up on his Tuscany Cafe there a few years ago, complaining about too little foot traffic. Signage and elevator access on North Michigan Avenue might give Mr. Hu an edge.

'NICE LITTLE NICHE'

There's also the question about whether Chicago foodies will warm to traditional Chinese cuisine with trendy Asian fare at nearby Sunda and Shanghai Terrace in the Peninsula hotel. At least three other downtown Chinese restaurants have closed their doors in recent years: Ben Pao, the once-popular Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc. spot, China Grill in the Hard Rock Hotel and most recently Red Violet, which was run by a protege of Mr. Hu. The Michigan Avenue location of the downscale Sixty Five Chinese Restaurant closed as well.

“You have to ask yourself, why hasn't that particular cuisine flourished in that area?” says Jonathan Fox, who runs 3Sixty Dining Intelligence, a Chicago-based restaurant consulting firm. “It is not as if you have any long-standing Chinese restaurants that have stood the test of time.”

But John Chikow, president of the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, thinks the foodies will come, as will the rising number of tourists from China. “If it goes as well as I think he's planning to make it go, he could have a nice little niche,” he says.

quote|John Chikow, presidentGreater North Michigan Avenue Assn.

If it goes as well as I think he's planning to make it go, he could have a nice little niche.